My Other Ride's A V8 Too

[Deuce]

You should have rung Shaw motorcycles, they probably have a vac hose cap on the shelf.

 

[UTE042_NZ]

As usual, it turns out to be more complicated than first appearances. That vacuum port is metered (for the advance/retard of a distributor etc.) and not full manifold vacuum pressure so wouldn't be causing a significant lean fuel/air issue. I have taped it off and reset the idle mixture screws to 1 1/4 turns from seated but apparently my problem is most likely to be that the carburettor has a blown power valve. The vacuum gauge arrived yesterday while I was in the middle of a full day standing in mud mixing concrete in my wheel barrow. Now I'm sore enough to declare this a recovery day and sit on my arse. Tomorrow if it's still raining I may use the vacuum gauge to try and get the Ford to idle.

I'll probably attach the gauge to the PCV port at the front of the carb to get full manifold vacuum, but, if that doesn't give full suck I can just stick it on the primary inlet tube at the top.



Time to turn on the idiot box and watch Muscle Garage then GT World Challenge Enduro Cup.

 

[UTE042_NZ]

Some time last month I hooked up the vacuum gauge to the PCV port on the inlet manifold and it was pulling 15" but I replaced the power valve in the carburettor anyway. I also decided to hook up a pair of manual switches for the two-speed electric cooling fan as that wasn't kicking in and I was having to shut the engine off at 210°F, before I could get to the bottom of the fuel/air/mixture and/or timing issue.

While waiting for those electrical parts to arrive I read the CDI ignition and billet distributor/magnetic pickup instructions, after working out what the combination of components is that I have.

CDI IGNITION: MSD 5520 Street Fire CDI Ignition

MSD 5520 Street Fire CDI Ignition

The Street Fire Capacitve Discharge Ignition is perfect for performance enthusiasts with a tight budget. The ignition offers capacitive discharge technology and will fire a series of multiple sparks that last for 20° of crankshaft rotation when the engine is running at lower rpm. This ensures...

www.speedwaymotors.com

Street Fire 5520 Street Fire Ignition Control

The Street Fire Capacitve Discharge Ignition is perfect for performance enthusiasts with a tight budget. The ignition offers capacitive discharge technology and will fire a series of multiple sparks that last for 20° of crankshaft rotation when the engine is running at lower rpm. This ensures...

www.holley.com

DISTRIBUTOR: Speedway Motors 1942-48 Flathead Ford 2 Bolt Electronic Distributor [1x Part # 5478351-1 & 1x Part # 5478824 (MSD 8824 Connector Kit, 2-Pin)]

1942-48 Flathead Ford 2 Bolt Electronic Distributors

Speedway Motors offers this billet aluminum electronic distributor for the fabulous 1942-48 Flathead Ford V8. Billet 6061-T6 aluminum housing Hardened steel shaft Sealed ball bearing & sintered busing Extremely accurate Hall effect pickup Brass HEI-style terminals NOTE: Requires high energy...

www.speedwaymotors.com

CAP: MSD 8541 'Crab' Style Cap

MSD 8541 'Crab' Style Cap

MSD molds our most popular V8 distributor caps in-house. These terminals offer improved locking connections and the Rynite material is extremely strong with excellent dielectric properties. Plus, most caps have an optional wire retainer that is supplied with these cap to lock the wires in place...

www.speedwaymotors.com

ROTOR: MSD 84673 Race Rotor for Distributor 8351, 8353, 84891

MSD 84673 Race Rotor for Distributor 8351, 8353, 84891

Replacement Race Rotor for MSD distributors 8351, 8353 and 84891

www.speedwaymotors.com

COIL: Universal Fit, HEI / Male Cap Type, HEI / Male Cap Terminal Style, .80 ohms Resistance

Electronic Ignition Coil

Oil filled heavy duty coils are guaranteed to out perform your stock unit delivering over 30% more spark energy. The oil filled design and arc resistant top, results in superior performance. The coil delivers the added voltage required by street and strip performance engines, and will fit in...

www.speedwaymotors.com

Then I measured the resistances of the coil and all the ignition leads. At first the coil seemed to read too high on the primary circuit at 1.5 Ohms (supposed be 0.7 to 0.8) but I discovered that it was due to the multimeter leads, after I ordered a replacement coil.
MSD Ignition Coil - Blaster 3 - Extra-Tall Tower

MSD 8223 MSD Ignition Coil - Blaster 3 - Extra-Tall Tower

The Blaster 3 Coil features an extra-tall tower design to improve the coil wire attachment and spark isolation. Supplied with a 90-degree terminal and boot. If you are looking to upgrade your stock coil, or want to compliment the performance of your MSD Blaster Ignition, MSD 5, 6, or 7, the...

www.holley.com

So now I have a spare coil. The original coil resistance measured at 0.5 to 0.7 when I rechecked used a different set of leads for the multimeter (although the first set of leads read zero Ohms when touched together - I suppose the multimeter was calibrated to disguise that). When I was connecting the coil lead back to the distributor HEI connector it felt wonky and I discovered that the 90° metal elbow clamp seems to be broken back inside the rubber boot.

Ahah! Maybe that's the source of every missfire and all the unburnt fuel. I'll just make a new coil lead then. Or buy one. Oh yea, not so fast - remember those MSD instructions? Said something about "Use helically wound spark plug wires. Do NOT use solid core." Um, I can buy a kit of 8 MSD plug leads and 1 coil lead for $250 but would have to also buy a $65 crimp tool because they come with 1 end fitted and you must finish to your own length. There are 18" premade MSD coil leads, exactly what I want, but none in NZ. Black or red. $22 US but the shipping pushes it to over $100 NZ. Red one on eBay AU almost half the price of a black one, get it sent here for under $65 NZ total. Done. Then it sits at Brisbane airport for 10 days because our lockdown closed the border and stopped the flights. Yay it landed on Saturday, I might get it this week and be able to fire the flatty up again. Must put the battery on charge tomorrow.

Today, for something to do (and because it's a recovery day after 3 labouring in the yard) I took the old autolite sparkplugs from my flathead around to a mate's and ran them through his shot blaster. Then I discovered just how useful a tool one's phone camera can be. I expected, found, and used a bit of mig wire to pick out some shot down between the cramic and the outer steel but decades ago had never been able to check between the ceramic and the pin. Spent about 90 minutes taking photos and knocking 8 plugs against a shipping container door frame to dislodge grit that was invisible to the eye. Here's a sample of a couple.


Plug #5 before...


Plug # 5 after......


Plug #6 before...


Plug #6 after.......

 

[UTE042_NZ]

Pulled the distributor today and gave it a much needed clean. Everything inside under the rotor was coated in brown stuff that looked like a combination of mud and rust. Apparently these CDI ignition 45,000+ Volt coil combinations cause a fair bit of condensation via ionisation inside the distributor when all the arcing and sparking is going on and they should be cleaned every couple of years. Forgot to take before pictures. Here's a couple of afters.

I will be drilling a small hole in the lowest point of the distributor cap to let any future condensation out and applying some dielectric grease to the tip of the rotor and on each electrode on the cap. I also made two new gaskets (1 spare). Before I scraped the old one off it looked like the distributor had been off and on a few times and it had definitely weeped some oil.

 

[Fu Manchu]

Love cleaning stuff on the car. How good does it look now

 

[afstruct]

Love cleaning stuff on the car. How good does it look now

LOl, would have never guessed that!!!!! HA HA HA

 

[UTE042_NZ]

Today, after putting the rotor back on the distributor I refitted it to the engine which is easy to do correctly as the drive is an offset notch in the end of the cam. Lined up the tiny dot punch marks I made before I removed it so the timing should be close to same. Silicone greased the bits mentioned above plus each end of the new coil lead.

Then I attacked the next little project - some open head surgery. The single dashboard temperature gauge is operated by a sender in the drivers side (left) head. These flathead V8s are essentially cast as two 4 cylinder blocks with a common crankshaft and therefore each side has a seperate cooling system. Their original gauge system was a bit complex with a single-pole variable resistance sender in one head and a double-pole bimetal switch in the other that would pin the gauge to "Hot" at any overtemperature on that side of the engine, all 6 volt. Mine is 12 volt with a single modern gauge and sender in the left head and a sender in the right head for the electric fan, not working correctly, but sender is ok - that's another story (sender is for a completely different fan control system than the one installed so I have bypassed all that and installed two manual switches that [1] turn the fan on [2] high speed).
Anyway, I'm just trying to get the Ford to be able to run for a half hour or so at a time so I can drive it down to the shed when that gets built, and I would like to be able to monitor the temperature from under the hood. So I bought a little mooneyes gauge to screw into the spare hole in the right head, and today drained some of the coolant. Didn't want to drain it all, just some out of the radiator top (siphoned) and a bit from the right head.

Made a little mess.

Pulled the bung and spilled some more.

Slapped on some nickel anti-seize and screwed in the gauge (not too tight, it's going into alloy).

Hows that?

*Steps back* and there's the distributor and new coil lead.

This is just temporary make-work. Once I get the car in the shed the enginge will be coming out and going onto a stand while I do some chassis and brake work. I intend to strip the paint off, then repaint the block red to match the interior, and polish all the aluminium.

 

[Deuce]

Flatheads are so cool.
I love this build thread.

That gauge is cool with the red mark at 200°f. Makes for an easy quick reference at a glance while you are working on the motor when running.

 

[Immortality]

I'm looking Forward to seeing it in person one day.

 

[UTE042_NZ]

Dirty Old Girl was able to idle but would still start to missfire when adding revs so I replaced the plugs with the cleaned ones, fitted the new coil, leaned the idle mixture some more, and advanced the timing as far as it would go. Result. Music to my ears.

New video by Cockroach The Trog (Roachie)

photos.app.goo.gl